How would you suggest finding content topics for this site?

[BobGW]

Hello,

How would you suggest finding content topics for this site:

nlpca.com

The end goal is signups for training seminars in San Francisco, California and Salt Lake City, Utah. In the future the seminars will move more towards life coaching trainings but right now they are mostly about NLP. NLP is a personal development field.

Just looking for ideas for the process of finding topics for the most link-bait-heavy fabulous content. The owners of the site are authorities in the field. This is for both blog and article content.

Thanks.

[KempRugeLawGroup]

I read this post in the Moz blog awhile back, and I thought it had some excellent ideas on finding topics for difficult niches. It has helped me...hopefully, it will do the same for you. Oh, and while gambling is the focus, it's just a case study. You can apply a lot of what he discusses to a variety of different businesses. http://moz.com/blog/case-study-whitehat-link-building-in-the-gambling-industry

For example: NLP + television could lead you to all sorts of content like "Did the Mentalist use NLP accurately in season 2 episode 4," etc.

Best,

Ruben

[KeriMorgret]

Will the people who read link-bait-heavy fabulous content be the ones who would sign up for a course?

[EGOL]

The owners of the site are authorities in the field.

Why are you asking us?

The owners should know:  1) the questions that people are askin';   2) the questions that people aren't askin' but need to know;  3) the common misconceptions about the topics;  4) the topics that amaze people;   5) the topics that are hot in the news;    6) other information that "authorities" know that are high impact.

[DonnaDuncan]

Hi Bob,

Buzzsumo is a great (and free!) tool for finding popular content. You can enter a topic or domain and it will provide you with a list of the most popular content over the past 6 months, month, week or 24 hours.

As Keri points out, it makes sense to profile your intended audience first so you know who's most likely to convert and appeal to their information wants and needs. But if you're looking for link and social bait as a way to increase your perceived popularity in Google's eyes, I've found Buzzsumo to be helpful. It also helps you see where your audience likes to hang out online. For example, when I plugged "NLP" into Buzzsumo, I could see that the preponderance of sharing was of CDs on Facebook and Twitter.

I'm also going to check out the article Ruben pointed out. Hadn't seen that yet.

[BobGW]

Good point.

People linking to nlpca.com would be coaches, institute owners, sales people with websites, personal development blogs, nlp sites, etc.

People who sign up for a course wouldn't necessarily have their own website.

How does that effect what we do Keri?

Bob

[KeriMorgret]

I was referring more about the content. You can write a great linkbait-worthy content about a new method to wax your car, but if you're selling diaper covers, it's not going to help you. Extreme example, but I'm trying to say to make sure that you write content that your target audience wants to read, not necessarily look just at content that will get links.